The Navy is evaluating whether it's worth spending millions of dollars to repair the USS Miami, the nuclear-powered submarine damaged in a fire in a Maine shipyard.
If the submarine is scrapped, the fleet could feel the effects for years. The number of attack submarines like the Miami is projected to drop as they are deactivated faster than they are replaced, and Navy leaders already have been trying to find new ways to keep up with demands from combatant commanders.
/.../The fleet would not feel any impact in the near term because the Miami was three months into an overhaul that was scheduled to take 20 months, said Jan van Tol, a retired Navy captain and a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington. He said that any ripple effects beyond that would be minimal, but that an episode like this would have greater consequences for the force as it grows smaller.